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Two
Senara
With no one else in sight I had no other choice than to focus on taking care of myself. There's nothing I wanted more in that moment than to see Wyn's face again. And yet there is no guarantee that I would. She could have died in the veil.
There was the distinct possibility that I could have survived somehow because of the magic that was running through my veins. She had magic too, but it was different and I didn't know how that would affect her chance of survival.
My first priority was to find some clothing, something that would cover what was needed while allowing me freedom of movement. The second priority was to figure out where I was. If I couldn't do either, then I felt sure it would be a bad omen for any time I spent in the area. In my heart I knew I had crossed through the veil and was somewhere in the fae lands, but I couldn't quite bring myself to acknowledge that yet, not with everything that had happened.
Ahead I could see the hazy shape of trees, well, a forest really. While there were trees around where we'd been pushed into the veil, I'd never seen any area that looked like what lay beforeme. The forest was my best hope at finding shelter and possibly being able to make myself some clothing.
From what I could see in the distance the woods didn't look exactly friendly, so I wasn't sure if it was actually a safe place to hide myself, but it had to beat hanging out naked in the middle of nowhere. The leaves appeared to be taking on a rust color, making it seem like it was autumn, even though it hadn't been when I was pushed into the veil, making me wonder just how long I'd been in there.
Some of the leaves had even taken on the color of a deep sunset-orange color with flecks of yellow and red here and there as well. There were still some green leaves left, but not many, and I was stunned by the beauty. Trees in the human lands didn't change like that. One day they were green and the next the leaves were a dirty brown and on the ground which made me wonder what was different in fae lands?
As I made my way towards the woods I just had to hope that I could find something inside to help. As though my trepidation about the woods had called them forth I could see figures moving between the trees and they were definitely not animals. Whatever I was seeing was walking upright on two legs.
It made me want to cower and run away given the fact that I was naked and unarmed, but as soon as that thought in my head, I shoved it to the side. That wasn't me. That wasn't what I did. And it definitely wasn't how I handled a threat.
There was no doubt about it, the figures were moving toward me. I didn't have my armor or weapons or any of that, so how could I win against them if they did? My only option was to try and do some kind of sneak attack, which meant that I had to get to the woods without them seeing me. Of course, this was all assuming that they were hostile to begin with, but I hadn't met many strangers in my life that weren't hostile if I was being honest.
I kept moving forward, except now I was hunched over, trying to keep my body as low to the ground as I could while still moving. In my mind I imagined myself as a bush or a rock or something of that nature, hoping that if they were to glance in my direction that was how they would see me as well.
As I was getting closer, I knew I had failed because the figures were no longer masked by the trees. They had stepped beyond the tree line and were out in the open.
Moving directly toward me.
I couldn't decide what was better, to freeze and hunker down in place or try and get to the woods so I could hide between the trees as fast as possible. In the end, I needed to do neither.
"Halt!" A voice called upon the air with a distinct tone of authority, one that was used to being obeyed. There was something familiar about it as well, which had me freezing in place. I wanted to run and hide, but I knew that if I did I would be chased down, hunted.
There was no other course of action for me than to just obey. The voice called again, "Raise your hands, gesture of surrender."
The movement exposed me completely, but that was something I'd have to get over. The figures came closer. My heart pounded in my chest, trying to beat its way through my ribs as though they were a cage that contained a foreshadowing of what was to come.
It wasn't too late to make a run for it, but I couldn't bring myself to move, not when I was already helpless. The thing that struck me, though, the thing that made my heart suddenly stop beating me a bit once was the shimmer of the golden eye and the setting sun.
But it couldn't be him.
The man broke off from the rest, moving faster, though they all continued to approach me warily. Their steps hesitant, their hands hovering over their weapons and yet not touching.
Something that I found oddly comforting was how none of them were wearing armor, or at least not metal armor. I knew because there was nothing gleaming in the sinking sun, just the metal of their swords that hung from their belts, which made me somewhat hopeful. If they didn't have armor, then maybe I could take them. Right?
The closer they came, the bigger I realized they were. It got to the point where I started to wonder if I was delusional and seeing things that if I had died after all this last gasp of my soul.
I told myself that instead of focusing on their size, what I should focus on is their weapons, and look for weak points. Even from this distance, I could tell the material of their clothes was flimsy at best, but at least they had clothes.
Something held me in place and I could feel that gaze is on me as though whoever was leading them was mentally daring me to move, to give them an excuse to come after me. It wasn't just that they were staring at me, it was more the intensity of that stare that had my skin prickling. They seemed to focus on me with the fire of a thousand suns and I couldn't tell whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
The closer they came the more fear ran down my spine. They were not human. I knew that from the graceful yet languid way they moved.
Once the figure was close enough that I knew I stood no chance against them in my current state I bowed my head bowed, showing my submission in the best way I could without actually giving it.
"Senara." The sound of my name had my head jerking upward. I realized that what I had seen as someone pushed me into the veil hadn't been some kind of delusional vision. It had been him finally dropping whatever glamour he had been using to hide his true self. I wanted to believe that I could tell when people were using glamour. But not only had Wyn proven mewrong, so had Thorn, and so had Ronan. Even though they had tried to kill me, part of me wanted to cry with relief at the sight of a familiar face. Whatever was going on at least there was somebody here that I knew, somebody that I recognized. Whether he was friend or foe I had yet to figure out.
"Thank the gods you're alive," Thorn's voice was rough, and as I looked up at him, I could see the tension that was creasing his brow, the slight frown that was tugging at his lips. My heart wanted to explode through my chest and I wanted to run to him, but he had tried to kill me, hadn't he? Wasn't that what it meant to push someone into the veil?
I didn't miss just how long it took for my gaze to meet his either as I craned my neck backward in order to do so. The man was impossibly large. Had the veil shrunk me or something?
